The release date for Windows 10 is here: I look back at the history of this latest version of Microsoft’s new flagship operating system and I find myself hopeful. Surprisingly hopeful…
Born of worldwide customer backlash over the consistent failings of Windows Vista and 8, this effort has demonstrated what appears to be a new direction; ostensibly one of unparalleled customer interaction and attention to customer feedback. As a long-time critic of Microsoft’s history of ignoring customer feedback and seemingly solitary focus on squeezing a dollar out of every minute facet of their customer’s use of their operating system, I am largely surprised with how this deployment appears to have developed.
At every step of the way, both business customer’s long time complaints and beta tester’s feedback looks to have driven actual changes resulting in adjustments to Windows 10. As we progressed with build after build, program use & Installs got easier and more stable as speed/performance enhancements became more and more noticeable.
For Microsoft, this shows a historical shift of direction with all the signs of a massive change of attitude: In years past, comments and suggestions from those of us who manage business IT environments and volunteer to test new Windows versions and submit suggestions have been largely ignored, our collective feedback seemingly unheard as the inexorable deployment of previous versions of Windows continued onward without a single course correction or adjustment. Forums filled to breaking with feedback decrying broken features or half-delivered functions left half developed at release.
This time around, I’ve seen an unusual amount of flexibility and responsiveness from Microsoft during the Beta testing process, along with a new commitment to continue the dialogue beyond the release date and integrate testing communities into their patching cycle, which until now has been securely locked away behind closed doors. Notable as well is the 180 degree shift towards business features that have on their customer’s minds (and forums & blogs) for years.
I’m hopeful about Microsoft’s new approach; hopeful that for the first time in a very long time Microsoft has delivered something uniquely useful and useable by the business community and has delivered features and capabilities that can not only add value, but also allow businesses to do more for less and be able to achieve some semblance of flexibility.
Incidentally, for those of you who always wait for the first service pack and are wondering what to do, since Microsoft has removed that particular distinction; don’t worry, they’ve simply renamed it and placed it into their “Slowest” update cycle. But that’s a topic for another article…
As always, this is simply my view from the cheep seats.
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